Another Nano Tank For A Betta

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wow it sure does! This one grows much smaller though, from what I can see
 
Well what a week it's been, with bushfires forcing us to evacuate on Sunday. We just came home yesterday. Nigel is the last evacuee to come home, I am picking him up from his home away from home later today :) I had to leave the loaches as it was just not going to work trying to catch them in the tank. I jumped the fence on Tuesday and our power was back on, so I got the filter going and did a water change as they were looking very stressed, pale with red stripes down their sides. Ammonia was .5 ppm, Nitrites 0 and Nitrates 80 ppm! Plants were okay, light was back on and CO2 started up again yesterday :)
 
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My nitrate woes continue with testing today back up at 80ppm. The problem with little tanks is that things tend to snowball quickly. I'm guessing it's the algae decaying that died during the fews days we had the lights off - another change scheduled for tomorrow.
 
My loaches recovered but are still a little stressed due to the nitrates. Nigel lost a little bit of tail due to fin rot while on evac but it's starting to grow back :)
 
So another 50% change tomorrow and I'll see what the levels are after that.
 
Nitrates down to 30ppm after a 40% change today
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One more change on the weekend and hopefully we'll be back under control. Gave up on the rotala and pulled it out as it's been small and sad for over a month now. On inspection it had hardly grown any new roots
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Not so sure about this new fert I changed to, it seems to be a bit crappy.
 
I've discovered that betta owners are a degenerate mob - and first class enablers 
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 Now the proud owner of another tank, this one is 60 litres so I don't think it fits in the nano category! Now to set up for another betta :)
 
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Wow you've had some drama. Amazing shot of that helicopter, did you get an airlift? Thank goodness you were able to come home with everybody unhurt!

Gorgeous fish and tank you've got! I wonder what was making your nitrates shoot up so high so quickly.
 
Thanks daize - well the most important occupant was evacuated in his quarantine tank, place of honor in the car caddy between the front seats  lol
We have 12 horses so we evacuated early over a couple of hours and watched the drama unfold from a safer viewpoint. It was a close call though, fire was stopped about 400m from our place.
 
fire patrols for looters
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The nitrates have been an issue for over a month now and I suspect part of it might have been due to some of the melt from the rotala and a couple of crypt leaves disintegrating, and the death of the hair algae. The extra nitrates from this would probably be much more pronounced in such a small tank - at least that's my theory.
 
Maintenance:
I had some BBA and Cladophora appear in my tank; and the gurus in the CO2 thread suggested it was because I wasn't dosing enough CO2 and possibly putting in too much iron. I've increased my CO2 to 1bps. Finally needed to replace the CO2 cartridge on the Fluval, 6 weeks not bad going. I've ordered some locally mixed EI fert packs from a local aquascaper to replace my flourish trace and ferts. 
 
Scaping:
The worst leaves on the anubia have been trimmed off, and now I'm considering removing it altogether as the species I picked up is growing leaves that are way too large and out of proportion for the tank. Some of the blyxa japonica was moved in front of the driftwood to grow and hide the crypt roots
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Also enquired about shipping some nice little patches of pellia. I am totally sold on small slow growing things! Also have my eye on some Staurogyne tropica for the new tank.
 
This gorgeous little pellia tree is for sale by an Aussie but won't ship (understandably) - me heart is broken!
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=et1J8q2RcW0
 
I bit the bullet today and removed the anubia - the last leaf it grew was well over 10cm long and the new roots it was putting down were huge - just too big for a little tank. The scape really misses those lovely leaves though, so the next job is to find something that suits and is a little more moderately sized. The plants are taking off with the CO2 increase including the US Fissidens moss which is starting to look good :)
 
Eyeing off possibly integrating a nymphaea nouchali into the scape.
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Well I think I screwed up :(
 
I split the media in my tank between the current filter and the old smaller filter. The current one is oversize and I plan to use it in the new tank (different build thread). The plan was to seed the smaller one so it immediately took over filtration duties in my little tank.
 
Well that part happened, however I might have removed the larger filter too quickly in my eagerness to start the new tank. I am now posting nitrites :( I double checked my water supply as we are buying tank water in after the fires, but that checked out okay. Nitrites were 0.25 shortly after the filter was removed, and have gone down but not 0 yet.
 
I also swapped out the 55W heater for the 25W one. It's summer so I should get away with that until it starts to cool off. The 55W is heating the new tank. :)
 
Screw up confirmed: the tank is having a mini spike.
 
Ammonia: 0.5ppm
Nitrite: 0.2ppm
Nitrate: 40
 
Just did a 40% water change and will check again tomorrow morning.
 
Ammonia nearly 0
Nitrite nearly 0
Nitrate 30
 
Back in business :)
 
And the new tank is up and running :D Nigel and Chip, Dale and Alvin have moved into the new tank which should be much more roomy for the loaches now they have grown a fair bit! Pics tonight :)
 
The new occupant of 1645a is Fabio and his cherry shrimp entourage. I really wanted shrimp in this tank, the moss and layout were really designed to be nice for shrimpies to enjoy. Seems to be a reasonably match so far, touch wood, Fabio is interested in the shrimp but not attacking them. Not holding my breath but hey, I might get lucky!
 
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Beautiful colours! Stunning photo, look forward to seeing more of him!
 
The new shrimp arrived - Fabio isn't sure what to think of his new comrades :D He's not eating them though! These are Darwin Algae Eating Shrimp. They arrived yesterday, were drip acclimated to the new tank and popped in with the cherries :)
 
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Ammonia <0.1
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 10
 

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